(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a panel for a liquid crystal display, and in particular, to a liquid crystal display panel including spacers.
(b) Disclosure of Related Art
A conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) includes two panels in which at least one of the two panels is coated with an alignment layer and includes field-generating electrodes. A liquid crystal (LC) layer having dielectric anisotropy is filled in a gap (called a cell gap) between the panels. Electric fields are applied to the LC layer by the field-generating electrodes and the transmittance of light through the panels is controlled by adjusting the field strength, thereby displaying desired picture images.
The two panels are assembled by printing a sealant along a periphery of one of the panels and by hot-pressing the panels.
The cell gap is maintained by elastic spacers provided between the panels and spacers included in the sealant. The LC layer is encapsulated by the sealant. The spacers includes spherical spacers spread on the panels and columnar spacers formed by photolithography.
The columnar spacers are vertically compressed to support the panels. When the cross sections of the spacers are too small, the spacers are apt to be deformed or to be damaged due to large compression deformation. If the cross sections of the spacers are too large, it is difficult to adjust the amount of the LC material to be filled in the gap between the panels due to the small compression deformation of the spacers. The inappropriate amount of the LC causes bubbles or non-uniform distribution of the LC.
As LCDs are made larger, it becomes important to keep the cell gap uniform to facilitate proper formation of the LC layer.